The present invention relates to microphone baffles and especially to a microphone baffle which can be slipped over a microphone and held thereto and bent to a variety of shapes.
In the past, various types of microphones have been utilized and typically a microphone has a housing which includes a handle which has a transducer, such as a moving coil in a dynamic microphone, at one end of the housing and is generally covered by a diaphragm and windscreen. The microphone housing may be attachable to a stand for holding the microphone in place for use by an individual and may include a cable for connecting to a sound system or, alternatively, may be a transmitting remote microphone. Microphones typically come with a variety of windscreens mounted around the diaphragm and transducer portion thereof for shielding the microphone against wind noise and the like. It has also been common for professionals in the use of microphones to make various types of baffles out of corrugated board or the like for shielding the microphone in one or more directions from a musical instrument or extraneous noise. Baffles for sound energy have also been utilized within rooms to breakup the sound by the absorption of energy and may use a sound absorbing surface which can sometimes be a waffle shaped material such as a foamed polymer. It has also been known in the past to .PN2utilize sound blocking materials for blocking the passage of sound through a wall. Typically a sound blocking material uses a material which has a resonance below the normal hearing threshold for humans. Typical sound blocking materials may be solid concrete or may be a thin sheet of lead, both of which materials resonate at such a low frequency as to produce no sound to the human ear on the other sound thereof.
Prior art patents which have microphones using various types of windscreens or baffles include the Knutson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,171 which shows a noise pressing filter for a microphone. The Billingsley U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,932 is for a simulated binaural recording system having a pair of planar barriers positioned at selected angles. The Di Mattia U.S. Pat. No. 2,855,067 is for a sound shielding housing for a microphone, such as used in a large number of sound shielding devices for telephone receivers, transmitters and the like. The Thiessen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,948 is a mechanical device for assisting in the discrimination of sounds while the Lakhovsky U.S. Pat. No. 2,263,408 improves the sound emitted by microphone and has a surrounding shield in one embodiment.
The present invention is for a universal microphone baffle which can be slipped onto the microphone and held in place and positioned in a variety of shapes and may include a sound blocking material therein for blocking and absorbing and conditioning the sound arriving at the microphone from different directions as determined by the positioning of the microphone and by the shaping of the microphone baffle.